Cellular AutoMidi is a generative music making app, making use of a modified version of the ever-popular Cellular Automata algorithm – a simple evolutionary model on a grid that works nicely for sequencers. (See, among many others, Lazyfish’s legendary NEWSCHOOL for Reaktor, and Audio Damage’s Automaton.)

Cellular Automata is nothing new, but here, you get to see it as an AIR/Flash app, which means a modular CA-based creation you can drop anywhere. (More on the cross-platform details after the jump.) And hey, if we can have countless step sequencers, why not countless cellular automata step sequencers? The project is developed by Leeds, England-based Flash developer Lawrie Cape.

It also deserves special mention for some nice sounds made with NI’s Massive synth, using FL Studio as host; see the video.

Cellular AutoMidi – Generative Audio Flash AIR App from Lawrie Cape on Vimeo.

Lawrie writes:

Each cell can be alive or dead. Once in a generation, each cell looks at it’s surrounding cells, and dies if it is lonely or overcrowded. If a dead cell has an optimum amount of neighbors, it will come to life! Each generation, all the cells which have come to life will sound a note. The notes are assigned based on the cell’s y position, and are all in the pentatonic scale.

There’s a few controls at the bottom which change how things work too.

Start/Stop – Starts/Stops the automation.
Load – Loads a pattern from the text box.
Export – Exports the current pattern to the clipboard. You can send it to friends, or save it for later, then load in with the load button.
Clear down – Stop and clear the current pattern.
Law Mode – An error when coding the cell rules gave this other odd mode.
Skip Audio – Just show the cell animations.
Sing Dead – Instead of singing the recently revived notes, sing for the recently deceased.
Note duration – Alter the system speed.
Also, along the top there are banks of preset systems. Click play to start a saved pattern, and click assign to assign the pattern currently displayed to that button. You can also trigger each pattern with the keyboard keys 1-8.

When you press Export, your pattern is automatically copied to the clipboard, so you can save it, or share it with people. Here’s a pattern I made – you can load it by pasting it into the load box, and pressing Load!

I’ve written a post about it on my blog here – http://www.lawriecape.co.uk/theblog/index.php/archives/735

And you can download the app there too.

What about MIDI function on different operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux)?

Flash Midi Server is Processing based, but I’ve packaged it as Win and Mac apps in the Google Code download at – http://code.google.com/p/flash-midi-server/downloads/list
In the next couple of days, I’ll put together and test a Linux version, and hopefully release the Processing source code too – although as my first Processing project, I’m sure the code is pretty ropey.

So, give it a try, and maybe someone with some Processing MIDI skills can recommend some tweaks to MIDI operation. I think this will be particularly welcome on Linux, where the toolset is a bit leaner.

If you use it, let us know what you think or what you create!

Audition, a favorite, previously Windows-only wave editor from Adobe, is coming to the Mac this winter. Adobe is touting native surround support, multi-channel effects, and performance optimizations; you can check out how the new tool looks at Adobe Labs. The public beta is due this winter. Interestingly, Adobe is pushing the video side of this more than audio, even though Audition is popular with audio users. The demos are hosted by video specialist Jason Levine, and “post production” is the phrase that keeps coming up.

The Mac is quickly becoming spoiled for choice with dedicated wave file editors, maybe enough that the half-decade-plus absence of Macromedia SoundEdit can finally be put to rest. WaveLab from Steinberg was announced back in March, joining the likes of BIAS Peak, Audiofile’s Wave Editor, DSP Quattro, Sound Studio, Apple’s Soundtrack Pro, and Audacity. Readers are divided on whether such dedicated tools are even needed, given expanded editing features in music and video programs, but those who do love them are very particular in their tastes. That means lovers of Audition on Windows, and people looking for more serious post-production tools to complement Adobe’s video offerings, now have some good news.

What made Adobe make the decision early? Well, I don’t know if you can chalk it up to a scathing review by my colleague Chris Breen for Macworld. But I do think the message he brought – that Soundbooth CS5 wasn’t quite up to pro tasks – was probably one Adobe was hearing from a lot of other people, too. Here’s how Chris opened his review:

When you think Adobe, the first thought unlikely to pop to mind is audio. And yet Adobe continues to include its Soundbooth audio editing application in the Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Master Collection bundles and sells the application separately for $199. Compare the latest version of Soundbooth with its predecessor, however, and you can be excused for thinking that audio is not among Adobe’s priorities. Soundbooth CS5 is a meager update that fails to address the application’s most glaring shortcomings.

Ouch. For what it’s worth, while I think you’d have to be pretty nuts to buy Soundbooth standalone for two hundred bucks, it’s worth trying out if you own CS. It’s great for quick edits and podcasts and such, though I agree with all of Chris’ criticisms.

Windows users, though, very often do think of Adobe Audition as a close rival with tools like Sony SoundForge and Steinberg WaveLab on the PC. (Now, only SoundForge hasn’t announced a Mac port.)

So, to what can you credit Adobe’s ability to port the tool? Without knowing the specifics of Audition, generally with Adobe apps, you can thank the use of cross-platform libraries and some shared code between applications. That could also mean that the announcement of Audition for Mac is simultaneously good news for loyal Windows users – it means Audition is getting some attention, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Audition for Windows gets an update around the same time.

What I wouldn’t read into this is any larger conclusions about Windows-to-Mac porting, as Synthtopia does:

Adobe Bringing Audition To The Mac. Could Sonar Be Next?

I can answer that question: no. Cakewalk has told me repeatedly that, while they’re enthusiastic about supporting the Mac, SONAR is closely tied to Windows. A DAW is also a lot more complicated than something like Audition. Tools like Cubase (in its current generation) and Ableton Live were built with cross-platform support in mind; adding it down the road is a much harder task.

I don’t think anything about this landscape has changed. Developers who can do it easily are happy to be on both platforms, most of all a company like Adobe that makes cross-platform support part of their business strategy.

But as I said, even Windows users may wind up getting a refreshed version of a favorite audio editor out of this.

Stay tuned for when you can audition this tool for yourse— oh, jeez. That’s a terrible way to end this post. I apologize. Someone must have dropped a CS5 box on my head or something.

Updated: Jim Dalrymple at The Loop talks to Adobe about Audition. Notable – Audition for Mac is getting some of the great noise reduction features from the Windows release (as noted by readers in comments), as well as some of the more unique and effective tools in Soundbooth (Paint Brush, Healing):

An audio engineer himself, Levine said that Audition has a number of features that cannot be matched in other applications. Most notably, Levine said Audition’s noise reduction and restoration capabilities will be something to watch out for.

“There are plug-ins that can do noise reduction, but quite frankly, Audition is just better,” said Levine.

Audition will also feature some very familiar tools like a Paint Brush and Healing Tool. Photoshop users know these tools well and they work just the same in Audition, except with audio instead of images.

Adobe Audition coming to the Mac [The Loop]

Speaking of audio editors for the Mac, Adobe has its own wave-editing tool for Mac and Windows. Soundbooth is different from other entries in the field, in that its aim is really to woo a wide audience and not just those of us who work with sound regularly. Got a Flash project and need to make some quick sound effect adjustments? Making a swooshing noise for After Effects? Transcribing notes from a workshop session? Soundbooth CS4 is aimed at you.

Now, you can buy Soundbooth on its own for US$199 list, though I expect almost no one would. (For one thing, if you’re spending your hard-earned dollars on an audio editor, you’re likely to choose one of its rivals, like Adobe’s own superior Audition for Windows.) More likely, you’ll get Soundbooth as part of Adobe’s creative suite.

I actually quite like Soundbooth; because it was built from the ground up, it has a clean, elegant interface, and some unique features. Unfortunately, CS4 was not the step forward I hoped it would be for this fledgling tool. You can read a review by Mac guru Christopher Breen in Macworld; I know that review up and down as I was its tech editor.

Review: Adobe Soundbooth CS4 [Macworld]

Basic sound editor adopts more-advanced features

The problem I have with CS4 is that while adding multitrack capabilities make sense, the implementation just doesn’t seem finished. Many of the options in the wave editing view don’t work in multitrack view, including some you’d expect to work with multiple tracks visible, like adjusting effects, markers, and slicing up chunks of a waveform. (In every other program I’ve ever seen, those are mixing functions.) Apple Soundtrack Pro, Sony SoundForge, and Adobe’s own Audition all seamlessly allow multitrack edit working methods. I have a feeling we’ll just see this addressed in CS5, but Adobe, if you can manage a point-5 release of Soundbooth that fixes this, I’ll be the first to applaud.

Note that you can simply choose to stick to the Editor view and not bother with multitrack, which is what I’ve taken to doing. But needless to say, if Adobe wants audio newcomers to be comfortable with Soundbooth, these kind of idiosyncrasies won’t help.

It’s also a bit odd that Adobe allows non-destructive saves exclusively, rather than letting you “flatten” changes when you want to make them permanent.

Now, in my own Peak review, I complained about the lack of multitrack functions and non-destructive editing. Soundbooth CS4 demonstrates that it’s better to add these features late than add them half-baked, so BIAS, I’m willing to wait. But part of the reason I’m being a stickler on those issues is that I know it’s possible to add these to an audio tool successfully.

That said, I’m actually really happy to have Soundbooth around on my hard drive as an additional audio utility, alongside these other tools. I’ve got a stack of interviews to transcribe, so I’m eager to try that feature. Expect a report back (plus, hopefully, some published interviews with musicians) once I’m done.

The simple truth is, while Soundbooth doesn’t stand so well on its own, as an integrated part of Creative Suite, it’s fantastic. Let’s assume this is just an off release and the third version restores some of the fresh promise of the first.

For one last Macworld review, see my take for Macworld.com on Apple’s Soundtrack Pro – now, sadly, only available in Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio, not on its own (though the latter can be a nice option).

Soundtrack Pro 2.0.1: Improved editing and new features help you sync audio with video

Auditorium is a fascinating free Flash game that turns interactive music arrangement into a series of puzzles. The center of the game is what the creators call “flow” – a visual stream of particles that can be directed to audio “containers” to create sound. The user places circles with icons signifying direction in the stream to redirect the particles where desired. As the stream hits the containers, it produces musical patterns. The results aren’t entirely open-ended – that is, there is a fairly fun puzzle game here, in that you can only “clear” a level by directing the flow of particles through all the objects. But the creators do claim that:

Auditorium is about the process of discovery and play. There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle. To get started, fill up the first audio level.

playauditorium.com

The game so far is just a “demo”; the goal is to flesh out the game and deliver a more fully-functioning version. There’s a precedent for that: games like N+ (formerly N), Crayon Physics, World of Goo (formerly Tower of Goo), fl0w, and Da Blob – even the prototype for breakout hit Portal – began their life as free games or research prototypes before becoming officially-published titles, just to name a few. In fact, a significant chunk of what’s happening in game design these days is beginning its life in research and indie projects. That’s likely because hardcore and casual gamers alike are hungry for new concepts, and A-list developers are saddled with epic projects and bone-crunchingly huge ambitions and budgets. I’m not certain Auditorium will be the next big hit, but this kind of model could generate the interactive music games that future-minded music lovers have been anticipating.

My only criticism here, as with many similar games, is that the actual music content is fairly static. It’s a good prototype, but it’d be great if these particles had more influence on music. That creates a new problem for game designers: the music itself is really part of the game mechanics. Part of the fault here is Flash, whose sonic capabilities are fairly limited without a significant investment of effort. I’d love to see a game environment in which it’s easier to prototype musical ideas, with live-generated musical materials and synthesis.

The prototype here is promising, though. Found other interactive music games out there you like? Do let us know!

(Thanks, Brent!)

It’s Flash 909, and Amiga Flash.

Code wizard Andre Michelle has already made a name hacking audio capabilities into Adobe Flash and ActionScript 3. We got to see his work in the form of real-time audio effects processing in the GarageBand-like online sample-and-compose interface for Splice:

Interview: How Splice.com Has Taken Music Real Audio Processing to the Web

Well, there’s more, well into the “Things Adobe Wouldn’t Normally Expect People to Do With Flash” category. There’s 8BitBoy (warning: link autoplays music), a Flash-based player for Amiga MOD tracker tunes. There’s a 909 emulation (cutely named FL-909). There’s open ActionScript 3 source called popforge [@ Google Code] with all the Flash-hacking tricks needed to do audio.

Now, the most tantalizing bit yet: Andre has a new music environment coming, and to tease its arrival, he’s put up a little application with Roland emulations and stompboxes — and it’s all part of the Rich Internet Application of the Future:

The Hobnox Audio Teaser is a new approach to give you a great opportunity to create music [compositions] online in your browser. The underlying audio engine is based on dynamic digital signal processing to provide very complex audio compositing in Flash. The graphical user interface is based on an unlimited sized desktop to layout your chosen devices as you wish to operate.

The first application design delivers you some Roland emulations and effect floorboards to play with. Since this is a Teaser, you don’t have the option to save your environment. However, already at this early state we provide you with some well-known software features as history, clipboard and auto-alignment of the devices.

“Hobnox” will be about more than some TB-303 toys; it promises to be an “online entertainment and rich media publishing platform.” I assume we’ll find out just what that means later. For now, there is a limited beta sign-up with the audio application; it wasn’t quite online when I looked for it, but hopefully it’ll show up soon:

Hobnox Audio Teaser – Come and register for private beta

Hobnox.com

It’s not all sunshine and happiness. These are hacks, not fully-supported features of Flash — and Adobe, like so many developers of supposedly “Rich Internet Applications,” often doesn’t have a clue about sound. Andre has run into problems with his hacks for that reason. Now, I know what you’re saying — why should Adobe, a hugely-successful business, care about your MOD player? And of course, they shouldn’t. But that’s not the point. The vision of Rich Internet Applications is software that is expressive across media, and that includes sonic capabilities. Maybe people don’t care about the ability to play old Amiga tracker tunes — well, unless Timbaland is looking for some new tracks. But they might care when speech and creative music applications and interactive sonic interfaces come into play. We’ll never know for certain if the RIA developers keep ignoring audio completely, because then we lack the platform for people to do interesting stuff.

In the meantime, though, it’s comforting to have guys like Andre hacking in brilliant ideas. I hope Adobe takes note.

Thanks to Chris O’Shea for this link. Be sure to check out his all-new Pixelsumo blog.

Keep those compatibility reports coming. We’ve heard some general frustrations with Leopard (as can happen with any OS update), and ongoing specific issues with M-Audio products. Digidesign Pro Tools 7.4 remains unsupported on the new OS. (Note that “unsupported” doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t work, as one reader observes.) I’m running Leopard here successfully on a MacBook Pro. It’s working nicely, and there are some nifty usability improvements, but on the other hand I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to make the leap when Tiger works so well.

If you’ve been on the search for a simple, straightforward audio editor for Mac and Windows, Adobe has officially thrown its hat into the ring with Soundbooth CS3.

Soundbooth Now Shipping [Hart's Audition, from the Adobe audio product chief]
New Soundbooth User-to-User Forum

Of course, to the rest of the world, the big news is that Adobe’s full Production Premium and Master Collection suites are shipping. But Soundbooth is one program that could make sense to buy alone, as a basic audio editor. It sets itself apart both by being cross-platform and by being geared for beginners and people wanting a simple, streamlined tool. And the killer feature: there’s a lasso tool you can use directly on the audio spectrum. I’ve been using that to isolate sounds in field recordings that would otherwise be impossible to grab.

I hope to have an in-depth look at the finished tool soon, so no conclusions about the shipping software yet, but in the meantime, see our preview from the beta.

Chris O’Shea sends along his latest project, a collaboration with sound designer and composer Owen Lloyd called Drop Spin Fade. Part of the Future of Sound tour, Drop Spin Fade allows users to position, sculpt, and play with sound in a 3D environment using gestural control.

Drop Spin Fade

The music/sound environment: Through a series of iterations, Chris and Owen have started simple and built increasingly-sophisticated sonic control using the setup, manipulating granular samples by spinning and bouncing them around the space. It’s not just positioning at work here: you can actually shape the sounds you’re hearing by interacting with the geometric forms in the environment. Eventually, the designers hope to give users more compositional control, making this into a kind of 3D sequencer.

The guts behind the scenes: The work was built to showcase the Illustrious positional sound system, which can use positioning data to create 3D sound environments. For control, the project uses the Gametrak game controller hardware, which you may have seen used in inexpensive golf and other sport games. It happens to be a very nice gestural controller, as well, with extremely low latency when compared to video camera tracking solutions. Visuals and hardware interface are performed in Adobe Director, routing positional control to Illustrious via MIDI and playing a live sound patch built in Max/MSP via OpenSoundControl data. There will be yet another piece as work proceeds on support for the Nintendo Wii controller.

I’m actually quite surprised that more work hasn’t been done with 3D interfaces — though I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised, as it’s extremely labor intensive! 3D has focused largely on positioning, but with powerful hardware and software capabilities bring 3D to the masses, 3D interfaces are surely next. Iterations and shared research are vitally important to any medium advancing, so I hope we’ll have more projects in this area. (I happen to be working on something different but related in the 3D space in my own research, which I’ll share when I’m ready.)

Previously from Chris O’Shea land: Muon Speakers, with Processing Visuals

Okay, Akai. You’re going to have to get on the ball, fast. Sure, the new MPCs have all kinds of sophisticated music production capabilities. But can they remix the sultry, animal call of The Cheat, or make the ladies swoon with a solo by Strongbad?*

Onetwo, short video made with looping … uh … things [Homestarrunner.com]
Onetwomixer: MixMastah 800 for mixing it yourself

Yes, a lot of these Flash-based remix tools / mash-up gimmicks have been somewhat … limited … musically-speaking. But this is strangely fun. I dare you to use it live. (If they had only played up the “mash-up” angle, maybe they might have gotten mentioned in Wired. Sigh.)

*Oh, and Akai/MPC fans: I’m kidding.

The good news is, you’ll be able to buy Soundbooth standalone for US$199. And that sets Adobe apart from Apple’s Soundtrack Pro, which requires you buy Final Cut Studio.

Interestingly, this leaves Audition Pro as exclusively a standalone app. Adobe has promised it isn’t abandoning Audition, though. I think this makes some sense: Audition is really geared at the audio production market. The people who are experts in Photoshop, Flash, After Effects, and so on are more likely to want a streamlined tool like Soundbooth, and hire someone else to do audio production. Well, unless they’re one of the multi-disciplinary creatives who read this site, of course, in which case they may go all-out.

Adobe has put together a product comparison with Audition. It basically breaks down to this:

1. Soundbooth: Streamlined “task-based” interface (meaning it’s friendlier to non-audio people), Flash cue point support, nifty non-destructive editing. Automatic scoring (yes, we hate that at CDM because we’d rather you hire a real composer, but whatever) Mac (Intel), PC. Summer. Summary: The app you’d use for quick, one-audio tool edits, like to a Flash soundtrack with cue points or some adjustments to an audio clip.
2. Audition: Multi-channel mixing and automation, batch processing, “tools-based interface” (read, more “pro”-style, traditional audio app), looping. PC. Now. Summary: The big guns, for multi-track mixing and batch-processing a whole bunch of files.

What I notice is, for audio mavens, the two tools compliment each other. On PC, I could easily see using the two: quick edits in Soundbooth, bigger projects and batches in Audition, or some Flash file edits in Soundbooth and multi-channel Premiere soundtrack edits in Audition.

Still too early to call how useful Soundbooth CS will be until it ships this summer, and there’s plenty of competition (Audition, Peak, WaveLab, etc., etc.) Stay tuned.

Soundbooth CS3 Product Page

Previously:

Adobe Soundbooth Beta 2: Now Easier, More Photoshop-y
Adobe Soundbooth Coming in Standalone, CS Bundle Versions; Lasso Tool History
Adobe Soundbooth Beta First Look: Simplified Audio Editor for Quick Sound Editing (Windows, Mac)
Adobe Defends Intel-Only Mac Release for Soundbooth

More on today’s CS3 suite announcement on Create Digital Motion:
Adobe Creative Suite 3: Highlights for Visualists, Simplified